The Various Media Terrains Around the World: Different but Similar

(March 19- 31, 2006)
By Sammy Santos

Sammy Santos

The media terrains we work on in the different parts of the world are so different, yet so similar. This was the reckoning of 24 young media practitioners, political media officers, human rights activists and plain liberalism advocates from 21 countries who attended the 2006 International Academy for Leadership (IAF) seminar “Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Information” at the Theodor Heuss Academy of the Freidrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) in Gummersbach, Germany from March 19 to 31.

During the presentation of regional media situations, a consensus was reached that journalists and political information officers alike face common problems in promoting liberal democracy: media corruption and bribery, lack of media technical skills and understanding of the role of mass media, outright state censorship, media threats, intimidation and actual killings, leading most journalists to practice self-censorship.

“We may come from different continents and cultures as well as different political systems. But when dealing with media and promoting liberalism, we are faced with the very same problems. In a way, our situations are very different but also very similar,” remarked Diego Casagrande, a veteran radio commentator from Porto Alegre, Brazil.

FNF Advocacies

IAF Director Jorg Dehnert outlined the rationale behind the international workshop, which the FNF started 15 years ago in Portugal. “Our objective is bringing together young leaders who are like-minded in promoting liberal democracy. Perhaps, by getting together and comparing experiences, we might be able to come up with liberal solutions to the prevailing political problems of the world,” he explained.

FNF, the only German foundation that conducts international seminars and whose presence is currently felt in 56 countries worldwide, has been in the forefront of promoting liberal principles, Dehnert said. These include democracy and freedom, adherence to the rule of law and human rights, and the promotion of the free market economy and globalization.

Having been a print media practitioner for more than 20 years before I joined the Philippine Senate as a media director, the workshop for me was extremely helpful as a refresher course on mass media in a democracy, its influence on conflict resolution and its crucial role in seeking justice for the oppressed.

We had two competent moderators in the persons of Heinrich Bergstresser and Dr. Ahmed Bedjagui who ably facilitated the deliberations with utmost patience and understanding, given the nuances of the participants’ diverse backgrounds.

What I enjoyed most during the eight-day seminar was the wealth of the life-stories, commentaries, experiences -- the biases even -- that were exchanged among delegates from countries such as Russia, China, India, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, Brazil, Argentina, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Egypt and Syria, to name a few.

Even at the dance floor located at the Theodor Heuss Akedemie basement bar, the diversity of the “world music” blended superbly with the diversity of the alcoholic beverages served, among them the potent locally-brewed German beer, so much so that interpreters found themselves of no use to the fired-up, albeit intoxicated, political communicators.

The Participants

Passion for press freedom and civil liberties was what impressed me most about the participants. Yao Yao, the amiable human rights worker from Beijing, was everybody’s favorite, not only for his good-natured sense of humor but also for his sympathy-drawing commentary, “you are lucky you have freedom in your country.”

Yao’s Gummersbach experience was like “a two-week trip to freedom,” noting sadly that he “was going back to hell” when the seminar was over. From this passionate freedom fighter trapped in a modern, communist Chinaman’s body, I learned that the fight for freedom takes many forms; from Internet blogging to influencing international democracy forums abroad.

Abdul Quahar Zalmay, the TV journalist from Pakistan, preached that a media practitioner always needed to be “confrontational and angry” to be taken seriously by the Pakistani public. “Are there too many ‘macho’ men in Pakistan media?” someone asked.

Casagrande, on the other hand, explained that it was natural for interviewers in Brazil to “constantly argue” with their TV show resource persons or guests on the air. TV hosts to be noticed by the Brazilian public, he said, must not only be bombastic, but also, of course, very opinionated. Whoever said media must be sober and objective?

On the other hand, Juan Carlos Sierra Galeas, a periodista from Honduras, warned that in some South American countries, the trend among populist politicians was to adopt a “patronizing attitude” towards media. This, he hinted, could be a euphemism for outright bribery, coupled by insincere compliments and overfriendly remarks to the journalists.

Sopit Wangvivatana, executive director of the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association, dwelled relentlessly on her NGO’s efforts to push for reforms in the broadcast media in Thailand. Rich businessmen who are cronies of the ruling politicians, she laments, are buying up the radio and TV companies to dominate the press, and eventually public opinion, in her country.

The same situation can be said of Syria and Turkey where the businessmen-friends of ruling politicians twist the arms of media owners by manipulating huge advertising budgets with the end objective of quelling political dissent, according to Amjad Baiazy of Syria and Ayzequl Ozerdem of Turkey.

In Guatemala, according to Maria Del Valle Reyes, 60 percent of the population are indigenous people who cannot read or write; thus radio remains the only effective means of communicating with the masses. Talk about the imperative need to tackle the Internet in mass media seminars.

Aditi Datta, communications officer of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative based in New Delhi, could not mask her fear of facing the TV cameras. “I don’t look good, I am not photogenic,” she lamented. Actually, it was her lack of understanding of television as a medium that was inadequate. A couple of sympathetic participants suggested later how that could be remedied.

Dmitry Negreev, a TV producer from Russia, impressed me with his intellect and determination to understand the dynamics of free media. “In the Russian media,” Dmitry said, “the public does not know most newspaper, radio and television owners. Journalists are also left in the dark as to what their bosses’ other interests are. There is complete lack of transparency in the national and local media scene,” he complained.

He also gave us an insight into how modern-day Russians view the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and the current attempts to introduce democratic reforms in Russia.” We should have done it like the Chinese did,” Dmitry pointed out. “What Russia did is to bring in political reforms before introducing economic reforms.” “The result,” he said, “was widespread inequity, chaos, organized crime and abuse of civil liberties. Russians may be free, but they remain poor and miserable,” he deplored. Dmitry looked with favor on the Chinese formula of first reforming the economy slowly by introducing free market policies; political reforms can come later when the people have become prosperous. A bewildered Yao Yao, who was seated on the opposite side of the room, could only shake his head in disagreement.

The Exercises

The workshop exercises, such as facing a TV camera and the holding of a press conference, turned out to be rich sources of learning and self-assessment for most of the participants. They were hilarious and entertaining as well.

The “Facing the TV Camera” exercises gave us a very personal account of the fact that while television can be a very powerful medium, it can also be very terrifying and intimidating, especially when one finds oneself in front of the camera, rather that behind it. It showed that one can make a total ass of oneself if he or she dares face the TV camera without the necessary preparation, like crafting a clear and precise message. Since most of us were first timers, there were a lot of critical and negative self-evaluations, commentaries, and even frustrations.

Like learning to express oneself on the dance floor, perhaps it is also imperative that we learn to express ourselves in front of the camera. All it takes is a clear and comprehensive understanding of this modern communication monster called television.

The TV exercises helped the participants. Latina Claudia Castaneda e-mailed me later that her experience in front of the TV camera helped her self-confidence when she had to do a televised emceeing job in Mexico City days after the Gummersbach seminar. Claudia is the information officer of the European Commission in Mexico City.

The German Media and Press Council

The lecture of Corina Blumel, chairperson of the German Association of Journalists, Cologne Section, on the mechanics and operations of the German Media and Press Council (Deutscher Presserat), was not a new idea to most Filipino journalists. In fact, media practitioners in the Philippines have been trying for the past several years to establish the same media self-regulatory body to police its own ranks. Such a system can only succeed once media workers, media owners, and a free and democratic society reach a certain level of maturity.

The excursions to Bonn, Cologne, Magdeburg and Hannover were not only welcome respites from the Gummersbach workshop discussions but also served as introductions to the rich German history and culture.

Our visits to the German TV and radio stations, such as the Deutsche Welle, the NDR and MDR regional radio/TV networks, were enriching and provided the participants with an actual look on the broadcasting process.

The tour to the Helmstedt German border museum brought me face to face with past horrors of the Cold War and the stories about how Berlin was divided by a wall after the end of World War II. Fact is, the completion of this article was partly delayed by my recent discovery in a Manila bookstore of The Wall, The People’s Story written by Christopher Hilton.

Wrote Hilton in the opening paragraph of his book: “Looking back on it, the mixture of madness and dreams seems logical, with each step leading inexorably to the next, but even so, dividing a major European City by a wall and for twenty-eight years killing anyone who tried to cross it without the right papers still stretches credulity and probably always will; but this is what happened to Berlin and this is what happened to ordinary human beings who lived and died with it.”

Shortly before the farewell dinner at the Theodor Heuss Academy in Gummersbach, seminar participants were drawn to a quote on liberalism translated into four languages and displayed on a lobby signage.

The quote is attributed to Friedrich August von Hayek, an Austrian economist and political philosopher noted for his defense of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism at the time when socialist and collectivist thought were sweeping the world in the mid-20th century. It said “Either both the choice and the risk rest with the individual, or he is relieved of both.”

I posed beside the mini-mural and thought to myself: well, this should sum up the animated discussions and debates, we, the 24 liberal thinkers from 21 nations, engaged in during the past several days on the issues of freedom of the press and freedom of information against the backdrop of liberal democracy.